Bread recipe

[truepenny]

I am making bread today, for the first time since July. To celebrate, I offer unto you, O internets, my bread recipe, which I have found utterly reliable and idiot-proof, the idiot in question being me. It is very forgiving of trial-and-error.

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Combine in a generously sized mixing bowl:

• 2 T yeast (that's two packages if you don't buy your yeast in bulk)
  
• 1/4 c warm water
  
• a pinch of brown sugar

Wait 5 minutes for the yeast to wake up.

Then add:

• 3 c warm water
  
• 3 T brown sugar
  
• ~1/2 T salt (depending on preference--for me, a little salt goes a long way, but the original recipe I got from my mom calls for a full tablespoon)
  
• 3 T canola oil
  
• 1 c rolled oats (again, depending on preference--original recipe says 1/2 c, but I say, the more oats the merrier)
  
• 6 c flour (my current favorite mix is 2 c rye flour, 2 c whole wheat flour, and 2 c white flour, but you could do 6 c white flour or 3 white and 3 whole wheat, or whatever takes your fancy)

Mix together, adding flour as necessary. When you have a sticky, semi-coherent mass, spread flour on the counter and tip it out. Remember to scrape the bowl and spoon to get all of the dough.

Now you knead, continuing to add flour as necessary. You want to end up with a smooth, cohesive, elastic, globular wodge of dough, likely somewhat lunar in its topography (depending on the flour, it will be more or less sticky to the touch). I don't find it particularly useful to say "knead for five minutes" or "ten minutes" or whatever, because how long you need to knead will depend on the mix and quantity of flour you've used, the ambient heat and humidity, and your own personal arm strength. Also, like pornography, I've found that I know finished dough when I see it. It becomes an entity rather than a mess.

Put your entity back in the mixing bowl and let it rise for an hour and half. I cache it in the oven, because my house has enterprising quadrupeds.

After an hour and a half, take it out, divide it in half as evenly as you can (not very, in my case), shape your two new entities and tuck them into their bread pans, using butter, PAM, or other greasing agents as your pans require. Let them rise for another half hour to forty-five minutes, again depending on operating conditions. You want them to rise into graceful arcs over their pans, but not to start taking over the world.

Set the oven to preheat to 400 degrees. If your entities are sulky and disinclined to rise, you can set them on the stove-top, to take advantage of the heat. On the other hand, if they are enthusiastic megalomaniacs, you'll want to put them on the counter on the other side of the room.

When oven and entities are ready, combine. Bake for 40 minutes (if you're using my oven--for other ovens this time may vary, and you may want to experiment). Now is a good time to get out the cooling rack, and don't forget to set the timer. (Not that that would be a recommendation from personal experience or anything. Ahem.)

When the timer goes off, remove baked and radiant entities from oven and tip them out of their bread pans to sit on the cooling rack and fill your house with the smell of fresh bread. You should probably let them cool for at least a half hour before you cave to their blandishments and begin consuming them.

Nom nom nom.

Comments

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

It should terrify most people, except possibly my friend's mother. She has exceedingly low blood pressure and as a result her doctor encourages her to consume as much sodium as she wants. She salts Ruffles.